Yuki Ishiwatari

Fuel, Core Design and Subchannel Analysis of a Superfast Reactor

A compact supercritical water-cooled fast reactor (superfast reactor) core with a power of 700MWe is designed by using a three-dimensional neutronics thermal-hydraulic coupled method. The core consists of 126 seed assemblies and 73 blanket assemblies. In the seed assemblies, 251 fuel rods, consisting of MOX pellets, stainless steel (SUS304) cladding, and fission gas plenum are arranged into a tight triangle lattice along with 19 guide tubes for control rods and instrumentation. A zirconium hydride (ZrH) layer is employed in the blanket assemblies to reduce void reactivity. The results of the coupling three-dimensional neutronics and thermal hydraulic calculations show that this core has a high power density of 158.8 W/cm3 with a maximum linear heat generation rate (MLHGR) less than 39 kW/m, that an average coolant outlet temperature of 500°C is achieved with a maximum cladding surface temperature (MCST) less than 650°C, and that void reactivity coefficients are negative throughout the cycle. Since the thermal-hydraulic part of the core design is based on single-channel analyses, subchannel analyses are also performed on all the seed assemblies to clarify the influence of cross-flow.

Control of a High Temperature Supercritical Pressure Light Water Cooled and Moderated Reactor with Water Rods

The plant system of a supercritical pressure light water reactor (SCR) is once-through direct cycle. The whole coolant from the feedwater pumps is driven to the turbines. The core flow rate is less than 1/7 of that of a boiling water reactor. In the present design of the high temperature thermal reactor (SCLWR-H), the fuel assemblies contain many water rods in which the coolant flows downward. The stepwise responses of the SCLWR-H are analyzed against perturbations without a control system. Based on these analyses, a control system of the SCLWR-H is designed. The pressure is controlled by the turbine control valves. The main steam temperature is controlled by the feedwater pumps. The reactor power is controlled by the control rods. The control parameters are optimized by the test calculations to satisfy the criteria of both fast convergence and stability. The reactor is controlled stably with the designed control systems against various perturbations, such as setpoint change of the pressure, the main steam temperature and the core power, decrease in the feedwater temperature, and decrease in the feedwater flow rate.

Safety of Super LWR, (II) : Safety Analysis at Supercritical Pressure

This paper describes safety analysis of the high-temperature supercritical water-cooled thermal reactor with downward-flow water rods (called Super LWR) at supercritical pressure. Eleven transients and four accidents are chosen for the safety analysis considering types of abnormalities. The cladding temperature is taken as the important transient criterion instead of the heat flux ratio. The once-through cooling system and the downward-flow water rod system characterize safety of the Super LWR. “Loss of feedwater” is important because it is the same as “loss of reactor coolant flow” unlike BWR and PWR. However, the downward-flow water rods mitigate core heat-up before startup of the auxiliary feedwater system because they remove heat from the fuel channels by heat conduction and supply their water inventory to the fuel channels by volume expansion. During pressurization transients, the reactor power does not increase significantly unlike BWR due to no void collapse in single-phase flow and decrease in coolant density by flow stagnation in the once-through cooling system. All the transients and the accidents satisfy the criteria. Increases in the hottest cladding temperatures are about 50°C at transients and 250°C at accidents at maximum. The period of the high cladding temperature is very short at transients.

Safety of super LWR, (I) safety system design

This paper describes design concept of safety system of the high-temperature supercritical pressure light water cooled reactor with downward-flow water rods (Super LWR). Since this reactor is once-through cooling system without water level and coolant circulation, the fundamental safety requirement is keeping core coolant flow rate while that of light water reactors (LWR) is keeping coolant inventory. “Coolant supply from cold-leg” and “coolant outlet at hot-leg” are needed for it. The advantage of the once-through cooling system is that reactor depressurization induces core coolant flow and cools the core. The downward-flow water rod system enhances this effect because the top dome and the water rods supply its water inventory to the core like an “in-vessel accumulator.” The safety system of the Super LWR is designed referring to those of LWR in consideration of its characteristics and safety principle. “Coolant supply” is kept by high-pressure auxiliary feedwater system and low-pressure core injection system. “Coolant outlet” is kept by safety relief valves and automatic depressurization system. The Super LWR is equipped with two independent shutdown systems: reactor scram system and standby liquid control system. The capacities and the actuation conditions determined in this study are to be used in safety analysis.

Breeding Ratio Analysis of a Fast Reactor Cooled by Supercritical Light Water

The purpose of the study is to analyze the breeding ratio of a supercritical pressure light water cooled fast reactor (SCFR) and to design a breeding core of SCFR. The sensitivities of core parameters to the breeding ratio are analyzed. The core is designed by coupling two-dimensional R-Z neutronics and a multi-channel thermal-hydraulic calculation. The parameters which have high sensitivities to the breeding ratio are the diameter of the fuel rods and the diameter of the coolant tubes of the briquet blanket. The briquet fuel assembly means that the coolant flows in tubes and the fuel is contained outside of the tubes, “a tube in shell” fuel assembly. For increasing heavy metal fraction, briquet blanket is considered. The positions of the fuel and the coolant are exchanged for increasing heavy metal fraction in briquet blanket. The breeding ratio of SCFR is 1.021 with fuel rod type blanket and 1.034 with the briquet blanket. When both seed and blanket are composed of briquet type fuel elements, the breeding ratio reaches 1.046 because of the high fuel volume fraction. The reactor power also increases with the briquet core. But SCFR can be a breeding reactor even if both seed and blanket consist of rod type fuels.

Thermal and Stability Considerations of Super LWR during Sliding Pressure Startup

The feasibility of the sliding pressure startup of a high-temperature supercritical-pressure light water reactor (super LWR, SCLWR-H) is assessed from both thermal and stability considerations. In the sliding pressure startup, nuclear heating starts at subcritical pressure and the reactor is pressurized to supercritical pressure at a low power and high enough flow rate. The reactor power and flow rate are then raised gradually to the rated normal values at constant supercritical operating pressure. During startup, the maximum cladding surface temperature must not exceed 620°C. For two-phase flow at subcritical pressures, the homogeneous equilibrium model is used. The thermal-hydraulic and coupled neutronic thermal-hydraulic stabilities during pressurization and power-raising are investigated by a frequency-domain linear analysis for both supercritical-pressure and subcritical-pressure operating conditions. The same stability criteria as those of BWRs are used. From the analysis results, a sliding pressure startup procedure is proposed for super LWR. The thermal criteria are satisfied by keeping the core power between the maximum allowable limit and minimum limit required for turbine startup and operation. The thermal-hydraulic stability and coupled neutronic thermal-hydraulic stability can be maintained by applying an orifice pressure drop coefficient at the inlet of fuel assembly and by controlling the power and flow rate during startup.

Startup Thermal Analysis of a High-Temperature Supercritical-Pressure Light Water Reactor

The startup systems of a high-temperature supercritical-pressure light-water-cooled thermal reactor (SCLWR-H), in which the core outlet temperature is 500°C and downward-flowing water rods are used as moderators, are studied by thermal-hydraulic analysis. The thermal analyses are carried out for various startup phases and detailed procedures for these phases are investigated. In constant pressure startup system, the reactor starts at supercritical pressure. A flash tank and pressure-reducing valves are necessary. The flash tank is designed so that the moisture content in the steam is less than 0.1%. In sliding pressure startup system, the reactor starts at subcritical pressure. A steam-water separator and a drain tank are required. The separator is designed by referring to those of supercritical fossil-fired power plants (FPPs). The maximum cladding surface temperature is restricted not to exceed the rated value of 620°C. The minimum flow rate is 25% for constant pressure startup and 35% for sliding pressure startup. Both constant pressure and sliding pressure startup systems are found feasible from thermal analysis. Because of lower flow rate than SCFR, of which the core outlet temperature is about 430°C, the component weight required is reduced in SCLWR-H. The sliding pressure startup system should be used to reduce the component weight and to simplify the plant system.

LOCA Analysis of Super LWR

LOCA analysis of the supercritical-pressure light water cooled thermal reactor with downward-flow water rods (called Super LWR) are carried out to clarify its characteristics. 1–100% hot/cold leg breaks are analyzed. At the cold-leg large break, excessive core heat-up is mitigated by the automatic depressurization system (ADS) during blowdown because reactor depressurization induces core coolant flow. The coolant inventory in the top dome and the water rods is effectively used for core cooling. After blowdown, the core is slowly re-flooded by the low-pressure ECCS like PWR. The highest cladding temperature of the large LOCA is lower than the criterion (1,260°C) by about 430°C which appears during the reflooding phase. Small break of the cold-leg gives the higher cladding temperatures than that of the large break because the ADS are not actuated in the analysis. The highest cladding temperature is lower than the criterion by about 260°C. If the ADS actuation is assumed by the “drywell pressure high” signal, the cladding temperature is lower. The hot-leg break is less severe than the cold-leg break because it increases the core coolant flow rate and forced flooding is expected after blowdown.

Improvements of Feedwater Controller for the Super Fast Reactor

The main steam temperature of SCWRs sensitively changes with the power-to-flow ratio. In this article, the feedwater controller of the Super FR (fast-spectrum SCWR) is modified from that of the Super LWR (thermal-spectrum SCWR) for suppressing the variation of the main steam temperature. A plant system analysis code SPRAT-F is used. One of three feedback terms is added to the original feedwater controller that took only the deviation of the main steam temperature into consideration. In the feedwater controller (A), the deviation of the power-to-flow ratio is considered. In the feedwater controller (B), the deviation of the power is considered. In the feedwater controller (C), the time derivative of the power is considered. All the modified feedwater controllers keep the variation of the main steam temperature within 2°C, which has been achieved in recent supercritical coal-fired power plants, against typical load change. In order to further confirm the performance of the modified feedwater controllers, five typical perturbations are analyzed. All the feedwater controllers including the original one stably control the Super FR against all the perturbations without a significant oscillation or offset. Among them, the feedwater controller (B) gives a smaller or at least not larger variation of the main steam temperature compared with the original one at all the perturbations, while the feedwater controllers (A) and (C) give a larger variation in particular cases. From these results, it is concluded that the original feedwater controller is successfully improved as the feedwater controller (B).

ATWS characteristics of super LWR with/without alternative action

Anticipated-transient-without-scram (ATWS) of the supercritical-pressure light water cooled thermal reactor with downward-flow water rods (Super LWR) is analyzed to clarify its safety characteristics. At loss-of-flow, heat-up of the fuel cladding is mitigated by the water rods removing heat from the fuel channels by heat conduction and supplying their coolant inventory to the fuel channels by volume expansion. The average coolant density is not sensitive to the pressure due to the small density difference between “steam” and “water” at supercritical-pressure. Closure of the coolant outlet of the once-through system causes flow stagnation that suppresses an increase in the coolant density due to an increase in the temperature. Therefore, the increase in power is small for pressurization events. The coolant density and Doppler feedbacks provide good self-controllability of the power against loss-of-flow and reactivity insertion. An alternative action is not needed either to satisfy the safety criteria or to achieve a high-temperature stable condition for all ATWS events. Initiating the automatic depressurization system is a good alternative action that induces a strong core coolant flow and inserts a negative reactivity. It provides an additional safety margin for the ATWS events. Even the high core power rating of the Super LWR has excellent ATWS characteristics, providing a key reactor design advantage.